A 1973 Death I Learned of Recently

About December 14, 1973, 21-year-old Rockland Community College student Beverly Agnes went to a Monsey, New York doctor's office for a safe, legal abortion. She was about five months pregnant.

The doctor chose the risky saline instillation abortion method that had become popular in the United States in New York and California in the years immediately before the Roe vs. Wade decision legalized abortion-on-demand nationwide. This abortion method involves using a large syringe to remove as much amniotic fluid as possible from the womb and replace it with a strong salt solution that poisons the fetus and gives it strong chemical burns both internally and externally. The visible effects on the skin have led to saline-aborted fetuses to be dubbed "candy-apple babies" for their raw, red skin. (Graphic image here).

Given the gruesome effects on the fetus, one can imagine the risks to the mother, which include cardiac arrest, brain damage, and death. Japan, Sweden, and the Soviet Union had all abandoned the saline abortion method as far too risky. Doctors in the United States, however, did not heed the warnings sounded by doctors in other countries. Those in New York were particularly cavalier about potential maternal injures and deaths. Like many of his fellows in the Empire State, Beverly's physician did the saline instillation in his office as an outpatient procedure.

Beverly sickened after the saline was injected into her body. Around December 16, she was admitted to Nyek Hospital. There, doctors discovered that Beverly's doctor had accidentally injected the saline into the uterus itself rather than into the amniotic sac. The damage to the tissues of Beverly's uterus caused an overwhelming infection. Doctors at Nyek Hospital performed a hysterectomy to remove Beverly's festering uterus, and administered massive doses of antibiotics.

Their efforts were all in vain. The infection finally ended Beverly's life on December 21.

Medical Examiner Dr. Frederick Zugibe noted that saline instillation was "quite a common technique" for abortions, and that what Beverly suffered was "one of [abortion's] hazards. He declared that there was "no evidence of criminality." Neither the Medical Examiner's Office nor law enforcement ever released the name of the doctor whose carelessness cost Beverly Agnes her life.

Beverly's death was the third legal abortion death in the same New York county since the state had legalized outpatient abortion-on-demand on July 1, 1970. Edith Clark had died in June of 1971 and Pamela Modugno in May of 1972.

Additional Source: "Abortion death reviewed," Journal News, December 26, 1973

Names and More Info on Two "Jane Roe" Deaths

In my ongoing research for the Cemetery of Choice, I have identified and gained more information about two of the women whose deaths I had previously known of only through medical journal articles.

"Annie" is Edith Clark. Edith traveled from her home in Newark, New Jersey to the Sparkhill, New York office of Dr. Robert Livingston to avail herself of the new law, for a first-trimester abortion on June 24, 1971.

Shortly after she was given an injection of Innovar for anesthesia, Edith went into cardiac arrest, and attempts to revive her failed. She left behind three children.

Edith was the first woman to die in New York's Rockland County from a newly legalized abortion. The second, 18-year-old Pamela Modugno, died in May of 1972 after an abortion in one of the many freestanding abortion facilities that opened immediately after New York decided to permit outpatient abortion-on-demand up to 24 weeks.

Pamela had previously been identified with the psuedonym "Danielle." She was 18 when she traveled from Massachusetts to New York for a safe and legal abortion.

The abortion was performed at the newly-opened Monsey Medical Center on May 17, 1972. Minutes after the abortion was completed, Danielle was dead. She'd developed arterial and venous air emboli (air in her blood stream). Medical Examiner Frederick Zugibe, who performed the autopsy, classified Pamela's death as "accidental," and said that the abortionist's choice of a suction procedure was medically sound. However, he also indicated that the suction device might have actually created the fatal air bubble if it had encountered an unspecified anomaly of anatomy.

Pamela's father, Thomas, sued the facility for performing the abortion negligently and for "assault and trespass" committed by performing surgery contrary to a law in effect at the time that required parental consent for any non-emergency surgery on a patient under the age of 21.

The 1970 liberalization of abortion had made New York an abortion mecca until the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling that abortionists could legally set up shop in any state of the union. The facility where Pamela underwent her fatal abortion had opened just two days after New York legalized outpatient abortion-on-demand.I haven't been able to determine yet if the director, Dr. Lester Lando, performed Pamela's fatal abortion.

I am still hoping to get more information about the following deaths:

"Kimberly", December, 1970, cardiac arrest during abortion

"Amy", January, 1971, massive pulmonary embolism

"Andrea", January, 1971, overwhelming infection

"Sandra", April, 1971, committed suicide due to post-abortion remorse

"Anita", May, 1971, bled to death in her home during process of outpatient saline abortion

"Audrey", July, 1971, cardiac arrest during abortion

"Vicki", August, 1971, post-abortion infection

"April", August, 1971, injected with saline for outpatient abortion, went into shock and died

"Barbara", September, 1971, cardiac arrest after saline injection for abortion

"Tammy", October, 1971, massive post-abortion infection

"Beth", December, 1971, saline injection meant to kill fetus accidentally injected into her bloodstream

"Roseann", February, 1971, vomiting with seizures causing pneumonia after saline abortion

"Connie", March, 1972, cardiac arrest during abortion

"Julie", April, 1972, holes torn in her uterus and bowel

"Robin", May, 1972, lingering abortion complications

"Roxanne", May, 1972, given overdose of abortion sedatives